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April 12, 2012

Implications Of The Ryan Budget

When Paul Ryan offered up his new budget President Barack Obama went hysterical. Ryan's budget, he said, was "Social Darwinism." It would end air traffic control services and it would cause "less accurate" weather forecasting. He also called the Ryan Budget a "Trojan Horse" which made me wonder if he wasn't really talking about ObamaCare. But that's another story.

On Tuesday, Mr. Ryan pushed back. In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, he said that in fact the Catholic Church's "social magisterium" had informed his House budget. One goal of that teaching, he said, is to prevent the poor from staying poor. Nor, he added, should individuals become lifelong dependents of their government.

Just as the left thought the regulating reach of the Commerce Clause was beyond serious challenge, it long ago decided that none dare question the moral case for public spending. That social Darwinism speech Barack Obama is giving now in defense of federal programs isn't merely a public-policy statement. It's a Democratic encyclical. Paul Ryan's ideas are worse than wrong. They are heresy.

The timing is intriguing. As Mitt Romney solidifies has position as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, out comes the Ryan Budget to draw fire from the White House.

This is the debate Barack Obama hopes mockery and rhetorical carpet-bombing can kill before the fall campaign.

Democrats, who haven't bothered to pass a budget in three years, may suddenly decide they want to vote on this one. Quickly. To make it go away before fall. Otherwise there is the worry, how will Obama's hysterical rhetoric play come November? Pretty well with his left wing extremist base, but alas. We live in a largely conservative country.